| The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07. |
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| Peerce, Jan |
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| 1904–85, American tenor, b. New York City as Jacob Pincus Perelmuth. Discovered by Arturo Toscanini, who chose him to be a soloist in a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Peerce made his operatic debut in Philadelphia in 1938, singing the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto. In 1941 he made his debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Alfredo in Verdi’s La Traviata. He soon became a leading tenor there in the French and Italian repertoire. |
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| | | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2007 Columbia University Press. |
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